The present invention relates to smokable materials for smoking articles such as cigarettes, and in particular, to processes for manufacturing smokable materials.
Popular smoking articles, such as cigarettes, have a substantially cylindrical rod shaped structure and include a charge of smokable material, such as shreds or strands of tobacco material (i.e., in cut filler form), surrounded by a paper wrapper, thereby forming a smokable rod. It has become desirable to manufacture a cigarette having a cylindrical filter element aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the smokable rod. Typically, a filter element includes cellulose acetate tow circumscribed by plug wrap, and is attached to the smokable rod using a circumscribing tipping material.
Various processed smokable materials are known. For example, numerous reconstituted tobacco materials are employed as components of a blend of tobacco materials within a cigarette. Smokable materials having the tradenames Cytrel and NSM were introduced in Europe during the 1970's. A substantial listing of smokable materials can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,742 to Rainer et al.
It would be highly desirable to provide a process for manufacturing processed smokable materials.